Boo Shan Tseng and Sophia Araujo Hernandez (both Life Sciences), as well as collaborators at the University of Washington and the University of Calgary, published a research article, "A Biofilm Matrix-Associated Protease Inhibitor Protects Pseudomonas Aeruginosa from Proteolytic Attack", in the high-impact journal mBio. The work shows that when bacteria grow in communities called biofilms, the material holding the bacteria together retains a specific extracellular protein. This protein protects the biofilm bacteria from a bactericidal enzyme that is commonly produced by the immune system during infection, representing yet another way biofilm bacteria, which are a common cause of chronic and hospital-acquired infections, can increase their tolerance against the immune response. Hernandez is one of Tseng's undergraduate students.
